Capitalizing on news that 274,000 PlayStation 3 copies of Grand Theft Auto 4 sold on day one in Europe, Sony claimed the game also drove sales of the console itself.

Curiously, the company relied on a statement from Gamestop Senior VP of Merchandising Bob McKenzie: "From our position, the launch of GTA IV has been tremendous in driving traffic to our stores, as well as providing a vigorous lift in PS3 console sales over this time last week," McKenzie said.

"We attribute the growth to a huge fan base of PS2 owners who see this title as the trigger for the PS3 upgrade they've been planning."

Sony did not release any data about its hardware sales to back up its message, but well-known industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities appeared to agree.

"There is a huge installed base of loyal PlayStation 2 owners who have been looking for a reason to upgrade, and they have strong previous ties to the Grand Theft Auto franchise on PlayStation platforms."

NPD numbers for North American sales Grand Theft Auto 4 are not yet available.

"There is a huge installed base of loyal PlayStation 2 owners who have been looking for a reason to upgrade, and they have strong previous ties to the Grand Theft Auto franchise on PlayStation platforms."

My friend Carleys boyfriends 360 RROD'ed on the 28th, yup the day before GTA was released, he was previously boasting that his hadn't yet (the only person I knew of whose hadn't)At this point I'm very glad I went sony again, the 360's a nice console but those reliability issues are a killer and besides I get to play it online for free.

That isn't unusual. I used to work in a game store and often 'high class' games were also responsible for sytem sales. Whenever a game was about to come out we had heard really good things about, we made certain to have a few extra systems in stock, and usually we sold them.

HalfShadow:That isn't unusual. I used to work in a game store and often 'high class' games were also responsible for sytem sales. Whenever a game was about to come out we had heard really good things about, we made certain to have a few extra systems in stock, and usually we sold them.

Wish the five stores I went to before being able to buy my PS3/GTA4 pack had done the same thing - all sold out of both consoles and games, certainly some money been spent this last week thanks to this title.